We’re Big Baby Publishing, a radical zine distro and art collective in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been at this for over a year now, and have had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with so many cool people who are as passionate about feminism, queer liberation, anti racism, and anti imperialism as we are.
After using Instagram as our primary communication device, we’re switching over here. We are disillusioned by Meta’s, well, everything, and besides, it’s hard to read an essay on an Instagram story. We’re hoping that this blog format allows us, and everyone around us, to connect more meaningfully with our work.
Big Baby’s magical evolution
We came at this from being a bunch of kids in a local punk scene— going to shows and printing merch ourselves. We became upset with our community in 2023 following the siege on Gaza, as most of our “politically minded” peers seemed to not care. We decided we would merge our political values and our desire for mutual aid with an already vibrant arts scene. We have been grateful to work with bands we’ve loved, as well as organizers calling for divestment from Israel. Through throwing events, creating submission based zines, and showing up consistently, we’ve been able to create wonderful connections.
December 2023
This was our first event! We organized a fundraiser for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and eSims for Gazans on the ground. We threw a show with eight bands and an art market on the side. All ticket sales and profits from the market went to the cause— ultimately upwards of two thousand dollars USD.
We began writing zines for this event, with brief histories of the Palestinian Cause, as well as compilations of art and creative writing. We were shocked and heartened by the outpouring of community support and interest, and made a commitment to keep doing cool stuff.
May 2024
Keeping the momentum from Decembers’ event we planned a festival for AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month in a local park. We learned a lot in the process (such as how to best plan for gas powered generators being rained on), but with all said and done, it was a tremendous success!
We kept the same format, with a 20 table art market, arranged in a semicircle around a cardboard stage, where we had drag queens (DOING FLIPS IN HEELS ON WET GRASS?!?!) and a lineup of local bands. As it was a local park in an urban area, we had people stop by and chat all day. We continued giving out free zines that we wrote on various causes and topics.
Summer 2024
We laid low in the summer, mostly showing up to punk shows and zine fairs with our work. We became more excited about doing submission based work and figuring out how to make collaborative zines with other artists and activists in our scene.
October 2024
We did our third event in October 2024, and it was our most ambitious yet. With so much uncertainty leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election, we wanted to reaffirm what’s important to us. We threw a fundraiser again, this time splitting proceeds between our friend Yazan in Gaza (link to his fundraiser here) and the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund (you can learn what they do here).
The event began with a zine and mutual aid fair, of which we had over 30 groups and organizations participating. The second half of the event was ticketed and featured bands interspersed with pole dance performances. We were again thrilled to see an impressive turnout and over $2500 raised for our causes.
Looking forward
We’re excited to say we’re heading to DC in May for the first annual DMV Area Anarchist Bookfair (more on that here), so catch us there if you can!
We’ll also be at the second annual Seattle Zine Fest (find them here) on July 20th.
We’re hoping to hit some more shows and book fairs this summer, and as always, we’ll keep writing and learning.